Spiritual currents, from the oldest to the newest, all agree that affirmations or mantras are, perhaps, the best ways for a person to keep the mind busy doing something that is good and positive.

We have thoughts that come and go at the speed of light. Each day we have thousands of them speeding by, in and out, around and around, like a car race. When we pay attention to them we realize that, sometimes, we have great arguments with people; sometimes we criticize ourselves. Most of the times, though, we think about our lack of everything: time, money, health, wisdom, fun, happiness, talent, intelligence. In any case, our thoughts are mostly negative in nature.

This is natural, for we have been ingrained with them for hundreds, even thousands of years and we, unconsciously maintain an egotistical perception that life is not the good thing it is supposed to be. We have come to believe that our few moments of true bliss are just specs in a dark and cloudy life.

If you are as old as I am, you may remember the Hare Krishna folks, whom we would meet everywhere, with a smile on their faces and flowers in their hands. They were always singing and doing mantras, and, at that time, we thought they were really silly; idiotic, even. Even though we knew they acted that way to prevent negative thoughts to enter their minds, we still questioned the stupidity of the action, branding them as brainwashed.

Nowadays, knowing that the mind is so powerful that it brings forth to our lives that which we think about, we need to reconsider our previous judgments about those flower people. We now know, or perhaps I should say, we are aware that what we think about happens to us. We know that we bring upon us diseases, discomfort, lack, hate, and other negative states. All the time. Just let your mind wander and you will know what I mean.

Mike Dooley, from Inspiration Peak, (http://www.inspirationpeak.com) says: